February 27 (SeeNews) - Romania's market of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) contracted by 12% year-on-year to 5.0 billion euro ($5.7 billion) in 2018, global consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) said on Wednesday.
The drop in terms of value mirrored the development of the wider Central and Eastern European market, PwC said in a press release.
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Despite the lower value, the number of transactions recorded in Romania in 2018 was 170 - more than 130-140 on average in recent years, which reveals greater transparency and market confidence, PwC said.
The sectors with most transactions were IT & C, medical services, pharmaceuticals, real estate and industrial production, according to the report.
"For 2019, we anticipate development somewhat similar to the last two years, in terms of both market value and number of transactions. There are projects already begun in many sectors, and their successful completion depends largely on the economic and legislative stability of the country. If these requirements are met, we see a very good year for the merger and acquisition market, " PwC M&A team leader George Ureche said.
The M&A Outlook Report has been prepared on the basis of public information about transactions in 2018. Where no public data was available, PwC used industry-based estimates and projections.
London-headquartered PwC is a multinational professional services network which has been present in Romania since 1991.
($ = 0.8796 euro)